Tottenham vs Chelsea LIVE: Carabao Cup result, final score and reaction tonight
Relive all the action from the semi-final second leg at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium
Chelsea booked their place in the Carabao Cup final with a 3-0 semi-final aggregate win over Tottenham, whose hopes of a comeback were denied by VAR misery.
Thomas Tuchel’s men did half the job in last week’s first leg at Stamford Bridge when they won 2-0 and Antonio Rudiger’s first-half goal in north London settled matters, setting up a Wembley date against either Liverpool or Arsenal next month.
They will get a chance to claim a sixth League Cup and give Tuchel the opportunity of winning a third trophy in just over 14 months in the job.
Spurs were well beaten over the course of the two games, but it could have been different had technology not ruled against them on three occasions in the second leg.
Referee Andre Marriner twice awarded penalties that were overturned while Harry Kane had a goal ruled out for offside as they missed out on a second successive appearance in the final.
Tottenham vs Chelsea: Tanguy Ndombele and Dele Alli among Spurs players running out of chances to prove worth to Antonio Conte
It was a comment that was almost said in passing, but clearly had a point to it.
“You have to be good to try to change opinion,” Antonio Conte said, after his Spurs side laboured to a 3-1 win over Morecambe in the FA Cup . “If someone is disappointed with you, it’s normal. I was a player and it happened sometimes to me that someone was unhappy with my performance. This is our life. I repeat: it’s OK.”
The Tottenham Hotspur manager was addressing a question about how Tanguy Ndombele was booed as he trudged off following a second-half substitution, but it could have been a message to most of his starters against Morecambe.
Tottenham’s fringe players running out of chances to prove worth to Antonio Conte
Ndombele and Dele were disappointing as Spurs came close to suffering an embarrassing defeat to Morecambe – they are unlikely to get many more opportunities
Tottenham vs Chelsea: Tuchel on tonight’s game
Despite their two goal advantage from the first leg Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel says the Blues are not getting ahead of themselves and have prepared well to face a difficult opponent tonight. He said:
I would actually say we have no foot in the final. Why would you think about whether we have one foot or half a foot, why would you use energy thinking about this? We play another tough match in a tough stadium against a very good team and a top coach.
“So we need to be prepared and it’s maybe better not to expect too much because nobody knows what is going to happen. We need to be fully aware of everything and we need to adapt to the situations that happen to us on the pitch.
“Anything can happen in football, we want to make it happen on our side. If problems or obstacles occur, it’s our duty to respond, to show reactions and this is what we do. I’m very sure that everybody knows we play a very important match in a derby against Tottenham, a big stadium, a big club and a very competitive coach on the other side. So we need our best level.”
Tottenham vs Chelsea: League Cup history
Tottenham’s last trophy was won 14 years ago and it was in this very competition. Back then the League Cup was called the Carling Cup and Spurs were victorious in the 2007/08 final beating Chelsea 2-1.
On the other hand the last time Chelsea reached the League Cup final, back in 2014/15 when it was called the Capital One Cup, they faced Tottenham again and beat them 2-0 at Wembley.
Another trip to Wembley awaits the winner of this tie, can Spurs shock the Blues, overcome a two goal deficit and come out on top?
Tottenham vs Chelsea: Head-to-head
Since losing three consecutive matches in 2018/19 Chelsea are unbeaten in their last nine fixtures against Tottenham across all competitions with seven wins and two draws.
Last time out Chelsea defeated Tottenham 2-0 at Stamford Bridge so take a commanding lead heading into this second leg. Can Tottenham overcome it?
Tottenham vs Chelsea: Team changes
Antonio Conte makes five changes to the Tottenham team that lined up against Morecambe at the weekend. Davinson Sanchez and Emerson Royal come into the defence with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Lucas Moura and Harry Kane replacing Dele Alli, Bryan Gil and Tanguy Ndombele.
Thomas Tuchel also swap out a bunch of players. Antonio Rudiger comes in for Lewis Hall with Hakim Ziyech, Saul Niguez and Christian Pulisic replaced with Cesar Azpilicueta, Jorginho and Mason Mount.
Tottenham vs Chelsea: Line-ups
Tottenham XI: Gollini, Royal, Tanganga, Sanchez, Davies, Doherty, Winks, Hojbjerg, Lucas Moura, Lo Celso, Kane
Chelsea XI: Kepa, Christensen, Sarr, Rudiger, Azpilicueta, Jorginho, Kovacic, Hudson-Odoi, Mount, Lukaku, Werner
Tottenham vs Chelsea: Recent results
There has only been one fixture since these sides last met in the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final. Both teams were involved in FA Cup action as they played their first matches in the third round of the competition.
Tottenham faced a tricky encounter with League One’s Morecambe with took the lead in the first half through Anthony O’Connor. It wasn’t until Antonio Conte introduced his star players, including Harry Kane and Lucas Moura, late in the second half that the tied turned in Spurs’ favour. Harry Winks equalised in the 74th minute before Moura and Kane each added a goal to give Tottenham a comfortable 3-1 victory.
Chelsea hosted Chesterfield at Stamford Bridge and were several classes above the non-league club. They were 4-0 up at half-time with Timo Werner, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Romelu Lukaku and Andreas Christensen all getting on the scoresheet as Thomas Tuchel fielded and fairly strong line-up. Changes came at the break but Chelsea added to their tally through a Hakim Ziyech penalty before Chesterfield got on back 1 minutes from the end. Chelsea eventually winning 5-1.
Tottenham vs Chelsea: Conte on Tottenham’s ‘will to fight'
Tottenham boss, Antonio Conte, says that his team deserved to lose the first leg of the Carabao Cup semi-final (2-0 to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge) but believes that they can improve on the mistakes they made last week and have the ‘will to fight’ for a positive result tonight.
In a pre-match press conference yesterday Conte said:
For sure it’s an important game, the second leg of a semi-final of a trophy – we are working well to try to prepare in the best possible way,
“In the first game, we lost 2-0 and I think we deserved to lose the game. We conceded two goals in a way that, for sure, we can improve and to try, about the mistakes, in the future to find a better solution.
“When you start and you lost the first game 2-0, it’s not easy, but at the same time we want to try to give everything on the pitch, to show personality, to show character, to show the will and the desire to fight. This is very important and it will be very important tomorrow.”
Tottenham vs Chelsea: Kepa expected to return for Chelsea
With Chelsea’s first choice goalkeeper, Edouard Mendy, at the African Cup of Nations back up option Kepa Arrizabalaga has another chance to show Thomas Tuchel his skills and push for a permanent place in the starting XI.
Kepa sat out Chelsea’s FA Cup win over Chesterfield with Tuchel electing to go with Marcus Bettinelli in goal but the 27-year-old is expected to be back between the sticks tonight after Tuchel acknowledged his trust in Arrizabalaga. The Chelsea boss said:
Everyone had trust in Kepa once he needed to play and I felt the same from him. He does not need to show what he is capable of in these 90 minutes, we trust him and it is not easy in his position.
"I am so happy to have him. There is genuine trust and I’m happy he can show it because he is absolutely ready to show it."
Tottenham vs Chelsea: Early team news
Tottenham boss Antonio Conte confirmed that Cristian Romero, Steven Bergwijn, Eric Dier and Son Hueng-min will all miss tonight’s Carabao Cup semi-final second leg against Chelsea.
All four were missing for Spurs’ FA Cup win over Morecambe on Sunday and confirmed that “we didn’t recover any players compared to the last game” at his pre-match press conference.
For Chelsea, Thiago Silva and N’Golo Kante who miss the first leg due to positive Covid tests are back in training as is Cesar Azpilicueta but all three remain doubts for a starting place.
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